Public Awareness

Did you know?

Raw materials are essential elements in today’s industrial production and are crucial for the sustainable functioning of our economy.

A shortage of rare earth elements, used in everything from electric car batteries to solar panels and wind turbines, will hamper the growth of renewable energy technologies.

The increasing demand for raw materials has become a geopolitical issue as a great share of the worldwide production of CRMs is concentrated in a few countries, threatening to affect our economies if these countries cut back on exports.

Although Europe’s dependence on foreign imports of raw materials poses serious risks in terms of supply, price volatility and market distortions, many potential business opportunities have risen in recent years.

Waste recycling can allow for a more sustainable use of valuable raw materials and may be one of the solutions to the environmental impacts of mining and to Europe’s dependence on foreign resources.

Europe must find substitutes and develop innovative, clean and sustainable technologies for the exploration extraction and processing of raw materials.

Communication campaign

A 12-month awareness raising campaign will be rolled out during the second year of the project on the web, social media and the press.

Raw materials are crucial to Europe’s economy and essential to maintaining and improving our quality of life. Securing reliable and unhindered access to certain raw materials is a growing concern within the EU and across the globe. To address this challenge, the European Commission has created a list of Critical Raw Materials (CRMs). CRMs combine a high economic importance to the EU with a high risk associated with their supply. Examples of CRMs include rare earth elements, cobalt and niobium.